తప్పా లేక ఒప్పా ప్రజలే నిర్ణయించాలి

Indian Irony: Aditi restaurant owner was unheard when he approached authorities, 'booked' when dared to protest 

 Mumbai: What pinches him probably hurts others too. That is what one discerns when one reads about Aditi Restaurant owner Srinivas Shetty who told Midday that he was congratulated by many of his customers for his daring observations on rampant corruption in the present government.

Under fire from ruling dispensation at Centre for his ‘derogatory’ albeit true remarks on present state of inflation where eating in restaurants is considered a luxury and hence exorbitantly taxed, Shetty told Midday that the inspiration behind publishing the ‘harsh irony’ came after he had to close the AC section of his restaurant due to surging taxes.

 

“Because of the government including all AC eateries in its purview for paying service tax, I suffered losses and I had to shut down the AC section of my restaurant altogether,” he rues.

 Shetty and other members of umbrella body Association for Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR), after the tax hike, did try to approach authorities with their reservations but were unheard.

And that is when he devised the innovative way to protest.

 “As per UPA government, eating money (2G, Coal, CWG scam) is a necessity and eating food in an AC restaurant is a luxury,’ is what was the post-scripts of his restaurant bills read for the last fifteen days, till a bunch of Congress workers came protesting at his doorstep on Tuesday morning and demanded that he shut shop for ‘maligning’ the image of the party.

Apparently daunted by presence of angry workers, the owner complied. After having their way, the Congressmen went to Bhoiwada Police Station and lodged a defamation complaint against the owner.

A FIR was subsequently lodged. 

“We have registered a non-cognisable complaint (NC) against the restaurant for printing matter known to be defamatory (Section 501 of IPC) and have settled the matter for now. The restaurant owner has promised that he will not circulate those bills now,” a cop from Bhoiwada told Midday.

Though somewhat appeased after lodging a FIR, youth workers nonetheless continued condemning the owner of resorting to such defamatory tactics to voice his grievances.  The protests fizzed away finally after Shetty downed the shutters of his shop. 

It was only after the issue gained national prominence through media that he was allowed to re-open his business.

But his right to protest has been snatched away, and he can no longer publish any satire on his bills.

Justifying their actions against Shetty, youth Congress leaders asked the general public to not to pass any comments on matters which are subjudice.

“The owner might have his issues but he should fight them in a legal way rather than defaming the party for some people’s corruption,” Sandeep Pansade, general secretary, south-central region of Youth Congress was quoted by Midday.

Some even claimed that Shetty has political affiliations with BJP and Shiv Sena, and his way of protesting would not be tolerated.

Midday also reported several unnamed workers telling it that the ‘orders to close the restaurant had come directly from New Delhi’.